Hi folks, need your help again.
The Mondeo has bitten me in the pocket yet again. About 3 months ago we had a new cat fitted, the old one had collapsed internally. At the time Kwick Fit (they were the only ones able to get one next day, the day we went on holiday) said its the main cat thats gone and that was what they fitted and all ok, but you have two more, one for each bank of cylinders (2.5V6). It would appear that one of these has now gone. I understand that the newer V6's have only one. Is it possible to fit some spool pieces in way of the smaller cats and remove them totally from the system but still have a car that will pass emissions on MOT?
If I have to replace the cat I might as well have both done, how much will this cost me??
Bill
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Don't see why you shouldn't replace the two small cats with pipes providing that the car is not fitted with an O2 sensor before and after each cat. Not sure, will have to check. Otherwise there is a firm who will recondition your own cats for about half the cost of new. I did have their number but the lowlife who helped himself to my mobile phone from my van in the early hours of last Friday morning has it now!
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Bill,
If I remember correctly, there was a product recall on cats on V6 Mondeos some time ago. The local undertakers V6 Ford we look after was recalled into the local F**d Dealership for the replaceemnt of the three cats - FOC.
David
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It may be possible that by removing the cats or fitting a by-pass pipe you will overload and drastically shorten the life of the main cats. They must be there for a reason. Methinks cat efficiencies have increased and that allowed Ford to spec 1 cat for 2 on the later models.
Why have they failed - have you had over-fuelling probs or such like that would cause premature failure? In which case you should be prepared for further failures.
If you do replace your cats then surely the best thing to do would be to spec the later main cat and that will let you remove the pre-cats. Not sure about pipe runs tho.
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Dave - asterisks are banned.
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Guy,
David can use as many asterisks as he likes when describing my Mondeo. Its been the most usless, expensive, poor handling, petrol drinking, unreliable, paint blooming (I havn't mentioned that yet) lump of total excrement and sexual intercoursing piece of dog do do's that anyone could have the fornicating misfortune to own!
Goodnight sleep tight.
Bill
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Bill,
...and what's more don't even think of converting it to LPG - a batch of these cars with OEM Dual Fuel spec, only months old, turned up at auction recently ( Cheshire ) because they had been rejected by the fleet operator who had initially had them - significantly the original Ford warranty on these vehicles had been changed to exclude their use on LPG.
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There might be something in this LPG + Mondeo = waste of time equation.
Had to get a taxi the other night from a local firm and it took ages to arrive. When it did the driver apologised and went onto curse that several (7) of the 12 LPG Mondeos in the fleet had failed in the past month putting pressure on car availability. Bit spooky as previous thread mentioned Cheshire which is where I live, I wonder if the poor taxi firm bought the Mondeos ref to in the earlier post or was it just a taxi driver excuse. Apparently according to him the pistons go.
as ever
Mark
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You can't replace the front 2 cats as they are integral with the exhaust manifolds. And Dave is correct, they were subject to a recall some years ago. Check yours has been done.
Cats were introduced to help the environment, but surely anything that costs that much, as they contain rare metals that are hard and expensive to excavate, probably cost more in emmisions to make, than they save when fitted to a car.
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Glad I run a diesel.
However any feedback on reliability or not of diesel cats?
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I agree with your comment ref emissions from excavation and processing of the metals used in cats but those emissions aren't spread far and wide across towns and cities like the noxious emissions from vehicles. It's a case of the best of two evils.
[N.B. This assumes the car is not being used for a 2-mile school run in which case it will be polluting as badly as a 10 year old non-cat car as the cat will be stone cold]
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Thing is, why don't we have cats on our home central heating systems? I read that they give out more emissions than all the cars, not to mention those stinking diesels.
DON'T go for the reply button to tell me about the latest direct injection/common rail/duse or whatever.....I'm joking.
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A well maintained gas boiler does not produce any carbon monoxide unlike an internal combustion engine.
A well maintained gas boiler does not produce any significant unburnt fuel unlike an internal combustion engine.
A well maintained gas boiler does not produce any sulphur dioxides unlike our friends who drive diesels (pompe deuce or whatever!)
A sound boiler will emit water vapour, carbon dioxide and some nitrogen oxides only and methinks that is why we don't have £1000 cats fitted as standard!
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Well something gives out the vast quantity of polution in the atmosphere, and it isn't all cars. In fact, only a very small proportion is, that's the point I was getting at. Isn't CO2 a contributing factor (according to the government) to global warming or something, hence the governments' new company car tax rules?
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Guy
A well maintained CONDENSING Gas boiler produces all of the above gasses, but as almost all of the thermal energy in the gas is used to create usefull heat in (I'm assuming a house) then the its the the least polluting heat conversion unit you can use.
Petrol engines are about 35% fuel efficient, diesels are about 45%, old cast iron central heating boilers are about 73% and condensing boilers 95%. In fact a well designed condensing boiler on swimming pool duty with water at 15c and an ambient temp of 30c could be over 100% efficient. So unlikley as never to happen, but I think its possible (would also depend on humidity).
I like heat pumps (refrigeration in reverse) put in 1Kw of electrical power and get 3Kw of heat out. Well less now that the old refrigerants such as 11 and 12 have gone. But you can't run a car on refrigerants.
Basically cars do pollute more that central heating boilers per KwH of input energy.
Bill
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I read somewhere that the state of California is introducing compulsory catalytic converters on lawnmowers. Is this true, or did I read the story on April 1st?
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My new Honda lawnmower is an overhead cam, not another belt to change??
David
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So is mine......oh
About 80% of carbon dioxide is produced by animals.
When I hear that China and India have taken steps to reduce their irresponsible population levels I shall worry about my own co2 emissions,breathe more slowly perhaps,something like that.
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